Boss Curle excited by goal potential of Smith and Adams combination

The Cobblers boss has revealed he used last month’s signing of 6ft 5in tall Macclesfield striker Smith as a juicy carrot to entice Adams to the PTS Academy Stadium.

Adams is the type of player who lives for assists and Curle believes that he and Smith can be a potent attacking force.

The Town manager also believes the 32-year-old former Bury man can help turn the ex-Millwall frontman into a Championship-standard goalscorer.

“Nicky knows where to operate, and one of his missions for us, and one of the texts I sent him was after we had signed Harry Smith,” said Curle.

“I think that potentially, as a partnership and a combination, that will cause teams a lot of problems in this division next season.

“Nicky’s mission is to educate, encourage, help and ultimately produce crosses for Harry Smith to turn him into a Championship centre forward, and I think Nicky can do that.”

And the Cobblers boss doesn’t think it is just Smith who will benefit from Adams’ creativity.

The playmaker was comfortably the leader of assists in league two last season, directly creating 16 goals for his Shakers team-mates.

Curle knows there are no guarantees, but he believes Adams will produce the goods, and he hinted there may yet be more additions to the attacking talent at the PTS.

“With the strikers we have got, Junior Morias, Andy Williams and Harry Smith, the ball is going to be coming into the box,” said the Town boss.

“They know that if they make their movements, that Nicky will deliver crosses and ammunition and put the ball in the box, so we will be a threat when we work the ball into the wide areas.

“We have centre forwards with quality who can all score goals, but there is still work to be done in adding players to the final third as well, and we will add them to the mix.

“We want to win games and we want score goals, and to do that you need a goal threat and you need to get ammunition in the right areas, and I think we are getting that.”